Contact:Cecar T. Valbuena,Assistant Secretary,Department of Transportation and Communications,Columbia Tower,Ortigas Avenue, Mandaluyong City,Philippines,Tel:(632)727-7959,Fax:(632)727-7948

B -- LIGHT RAIL TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS, PHILIPPINES POC Evangela Kunene, USTDA, Room 309, SA-16, Washington, D.C. 20523-1602, Tel: (703) 875-4357, Fax: (703) 875-4009. Light Rail Technical Assistance For The Department Of Transportation And Communications, Philippines. The DOTC invites submission of Prequalification Statements from interested U.S. firms which are qualified on the basis of experience and capability to assist in the metro scale, multi-modal urban transportation project that will link all of the LRT lines together. The Philippine government and the World Bank are interested in undertaking this project together. Currently, there are six light rail projects (LRT) being undertaken in Manila with two more planned for the near term. The existing designs for the six projects have been formulated individually and have not taken into consideration linking the systems together to form a city wide light rail system. The technical assistance being requested would assist the DOTC in providing the project scopes, design of stations and interchange facilities as well as influencing the operations of existing and future lines. In addition, the technical advisor would assist in providing advice on public and private project financing sources as well as be an advocate and resource for U.S. companies. The advisors will be stationed in Manila and assigned to the Undersecretary of Transportation and Communications for a total of six months. The six month stint would be comprised of an initial stay of four months and a subsequent assignment of two months. The objective of the TDA funded advisors will be to identify potential U.S. investor and procurement opportunities as well as to advocate the use of U.S. equipment, services and technology for current and future light rail projects. Based upon the Prequalification Statements, the DOTC will develop a short list of qualified firms which will be invited in writing to submit a formal Technical Proposal to carry out the study. The U.S. firm selected will be paid in U.S. dollars from a US $103,556 grant to the DOTCs from the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (TDA). A detailed Request for Proposals (RFP), which includes the requirements for submission of the Prequalification Statements and the Technical Proposal, the Terms of Reference, and a background definitional mission/desk study report are available from TDA, at Room 309, SA-16, Washington, D.C. 20523-1602. Requests for the RFP should be faxed to the IRC, TDA at 703-875-4009. In the fax, please include your firm's name, contact person, address, and telephone number. Some firms have found that RFP materials sent by U.S. mail do not reach them in time for preparation of an adequate response. Firms that want TDA to use an overnight delivery service should include the name of the delivery service and your firm's account number in the request for the RFP. Firms that want to send a courier to TDA to retrieve the RFP should allow one hour after faxing the request to TDA before scheduling a pick-up. Please note that no telephone requests for the RFP will be honored. Please check your internal fax verification receipt. Because of the large number of RFP requests, TDA cannot respond to requests for fax verification. Requests for RFPs received before 4:00 PM will be mailed the same day. Requests received after 4:00 PM will be mailed the following day. Please check with your courier and/or mail room before calling TDA. Only U.S. firms and individuals may bid on this TDA financed activity. Interested firms, their subcontractors and employees of all participants must qualify under TDA's nationality requirements as of the due date for submission of qualifications and proposals and, if selected to carry out the TDA-financed activity, must continue to meet such requirements throughout the duration of the TDA-financed activity. All goods and services to be provided by the selected firm shall have their nationality, source and origin in the U.S. or host country. The U.S. firm may use subcontractors from host country for up to 20 percent of the TDA grant amount. Details of TDA's nationality requirements and mandatory contract clauses are also included in the RFP. Interested U.S. firms should submit their Prequalification Statements as outlined in the RFP in English directly to the DOTC by August 18, 1997 at the above address. Evaluation criteria for the Prequalification Statements and the Technical Proposals are included in the RFP. Price will NOT be a factor in contractor selection, and therefore, cost proposals should NOT be submitted. The DOTC reserves the right to reject any and/or all Prequalification Statements or Technical Proposals. The DOTC also reserves the right to contract with the selected firm for subsequent work related to the project. The DOTC is not bound to pay for any costs associated with the preparation and submission of Proposals. (0197)

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